One thing I really hate is...

[HV Ken]

...when tax preparers do not include the depreciation report in the client's copy. Now you are sitting there with a new client, looking at their last year's tax return, have a nice depreciation number, and no idea what the details are behind it.

I think it is professional courtesy to include the depreciation report in the client copy. We always do.

[RitaB]

Absolutely agree. The other extreme is the guy who includes 85 pages of worksheets that nobody needs. Grrr.

[BulldogTom]

...when tax preparers do not include the depreciation report in the client's copy. Now you are sitting there with a new client, looking at their last year's tax return, have a nice depreciation number, and no idea what the details are behind it.

I think it is professional courtesy to include the depreciation report in the client copy. We always do.

Sorry Ken,

I am one of those guys. I want to know why I am losing a client. So they have to come to see me to get the depreciation. Of course, I give it right up and at no charge. And if they ask for it in their package, I print it as well. It is a marketing thing for me.

Tom

Hollister, CA

[HV Ken]

Sorry Ken,

I am one of those guys. I want to know why I am losing a client. So they have to come to see me to get the depreciation. Of course, I give it right up and at no charge. And if they ask for it in their package, I print it as well. It is a marketing thing for me.

Tom

Hollister, CA

I don't mean to be morbid, but what if you die? We have picked up a few new clients this year whose previous accountant either retired and moved away, became unreachable, or died, and now there is a big hole that does not get filled. Not good for the consumer. Ultimately, we have a fundamental difference of opinion Tom - I believe this schedule is part of the product they paid you for.

[ILLMAS]

I am the same, I don't give them copies of the depreciation schedule unless they ask for it, 9 of 10 times new clients don't want for me to call the prior preparer, so like any other champ I recreate it to match prior years (not a problem for me) IRS agent didn't have a problem with a recreated schedule, in the past I had to call prior preparers and most are not very friendly or helpful, I once had a guy hung up on me and cursed me out

[MsTabbyKats]

If my program automatically attaches the schedule, I automatically include it.

If I get a new client w/o one....I try to recreate.

If anyone called and asked me for one (so far it's never happened) I'd send it.

I don't ask new clients to get one from the former preparer...because 1)it's awkward and 2)the may end up back with the former preparer

[Elrod]

They pay me for every form/worksheet I prepare for them...........So........They get all of it in it's entirety when they pick it up.

[jainen]

>>I recreate it to match prior years<<

How can you do that? You have to know the month placed in service, amount allocated to land, capitalized cost after bonus/179, maybe separate elections for state, all sorts of things. How can you even know whether the asset previously had the correct recovery period?

[MsTabbyKats]

>>I recreate it to match prior years<<

How can you do that? You have to know the month placed in service, amount allocated to land, capitalized cost after bonus/179, maybe separate elections for state, all sorts of things. How can you even know whether the asset previously had the correct recovery period?

So, what would you do?

[jainen]

>>what would you do?<<

Oh, sorry--now I see your point!

[HV Ken]

If tax preparers used professional courtesy and included the information, wouldn't this all be so much easier???

[ILLMAS]

>>I recreate it to match prior years<<

How can you do that? You have to know the month placed in service, amount allocated to land, capitalized cost after bonus/179, maybe separate elections for state, all sorts of things. How can you even know whether the asset previously had the correct recovery period?

Probably the same way you and other tax preparer have to do it as a last resort, don't think I pull out a magic ball or I have to consult my astrologer. Also like not if every new client has fixed assets.

[mcb39]

If tax preparers used professional courtesy and included the information, wouldn't this all be so much easier???

I totally agree. Having been in that boat more often than I care to count, it is a royal pain to try to recreate a depreciation schedule. I consider it to be part of their tax return and I always try to include it. I have gotten several new clients this year who had former preparers who had either retired or passed away. So far, none of them had depreciation, but those are the kind of returns that are still coming. I don't need ANY more problems this year (and today has been the day from hell). Drop in, drop off, pick up, with no appointments; telephone problems galore and the one client I did have scheduled for this afternoon didn't show. Of course, he is a priest so I have to forgive him, but he has one of the more difficult returns that I prepare and, yes, he does have depreciation.

[BulldogTom]

I don't mean to be morbid, but what if you die?

Then I go to heaven and watch you try to figure out the depreciation. I win.

Sorry Ken, not buying that I owe you a depreciation schedule. I owe my clients one, if they ask. If they want to leave me, I want to know why, and this is a great way to make sure they come back and I can ask what I did that caused them to leave. I can learn from what I did wrong.

Tom

Hollister, CA

[joanmcq]

I started including them fairly early in my practice, ever since I got the client whose former preparer had died suddenly and he had a hell of a time even getting his paperwork back. I've had to recreate on depreciation schedule where the preparer refused to pony up; claimed he didn't have one. So either he made depreciation up, or was lying. And it was hell. Duplex, half first rented in '89, then the second half extensively remodeled and rented out in 2000. Other half remodeled after that. I got as many numbers from the client as I could, and winged it, disclosing in the return. Pulled as much as I could from the 4562s that I had. I don't want my clients to go through this if I get hit by a bus.

[HV Ken]

Then I go to heaven and watch you try to figure out the depreciation. I win.

Sorry Ken, not buying that I owe you a depreciation schedule. I owe my clients one, if they ask. If they want to leave me, I want to know why, and this is a great way to make sure they come back and I can ask what I did that caused them to leave. I can learn from what I did wrong.

Tom

Hollister, CA

You don't owe it to me - you owe it to your client. It is part of the product/service they pay you for.

[BulldogTom]

You don't owe it to me - you owe it to your client. It is part of the product/service they pay you for.

I disagree. I provide my knowledge, experience, and expertise in the area of tax preparation. I owe my client a professionally prepared return that they can present to the IRS. The paperwork they give me I return to them unless I am required to maintain it. I keep photocopies of certain documents that explain an unusual position or deduction taken on the return.

Do you give your software to your clients? Then why would you give your workpapers. This is your intellectual property. It does not belong to the client. The only thing they are entitled to is a properly prepared return that they can give to the taxing authority as well as their original documents that I used in preparing their return. If they want to see or get a copy of a workpaper that was part of their return, I will gladly do so.

Not backing down Ken. No detail schedules unless they ask.

Tom

Hollister, CA

[HV Ken]

I disagree. I provide my knowledge, experience, and expertise in the area of tax preparation. I owe my client a professionally prepared return that they can present to the IRS. The paperwork they give me I return to them unless I am required to maintain it. I keep photocopies of certain documents that explain an unusual position or deduction taken on the return.

Do you give your software to your clients? Then why would you give your workpapers. This is your intellectual property. It does not belong to the client. The only thing they are entitled to is a properly prepared return that they can give to the taxing authority as well as their original documents that I used in preparing their return. If they want to see or get a copy of a workpaper that was part of their return, I will gladly do so.

Not backing down Ken. No detail schedules unless they ask.

Tom

Hollister, CA

So you are saying if you fill in the Schedule A line 21 worksheet, you don't include that? That's not intellectual property - that's filling out a supporting worksheet with information the client supplied to you. Wow - we have a very fundamental difference of opinion of what makes up quality customer service....

[BulldogTom]

If I have so many entries on line 21 that I can't rattle them off to them when I review their tax return with them, then I need to include a 2106 and charge for it.

Line 21 only has 5-6 things that you could put in there without really getting to the 2106. How many of your clients really have safe deposit boxes, uniforms, publications, licenses, union dues, and job seeking expenses all on the same return, and in multiples.

No, I don't print the supporting schedule for that either. I give them back their documents and I tell them that is where I put them.

And I am very good at customer service. I never let a client leave with an unanswered question about their return. I go over it line by line until they understand. I explain why they did not get anything for th 38 dollars in professional publications their broker told them they could deduct that I put on line 21, and that their AGI phased them out of.

I have no problem with a difference of opinion about what should be included in the client's return package. But you are getting very close to insulting my ability to provide service to my clients, so I will retire from this thread.

Regards,

Tom

Hollister, CA

[kcjenkins]

Tom and Ken are both people I respect and consider friends, so I hope at this point we all let this one end here. Sometimes it's just best to agree to disagree.